6
XVIII. Co-operative Enterprises.
The China Annual Report," in 1919, says :-
There has been a strong movement in favour of co-operative enterprise between Chinese and foreign business men during recent years. From the point of view of the foreigner in China co-operation has practical advantages. Under treaty their residence and activities are confined to the treaty ports. They can- not hold land or any other security in the great interior so long as they are operating as foreign firms. Co-operative enterprise was first tried in connection with mining, and after it had been realised that the day of the 'concession had passed in China.'
JJ
Notable Anglo-Chinese enterprises are:-
The Kailan Mining Administration, 1912.
The Fuchung Corporation, 1915.
The Chinese National Wireless Company (Limited), 1919.
There are also Sino-Japanese, Sino-American, and Sino-French concerns.
XIX.-Trade.
The number of foreign firms in China are:-
1903.
1913.
1919.
1920.
British..
420
590
644
679
American
114
131
314
409
French..
71
106
171
180
German
159
296
2
9
Russian
Japaneve
24 361
1,229
1,760
1,696
1,269
4,878
4,278
(N.B. The Russian and Japanese figures include many so-called 'firms,''
which are merely small retail shops.)
The total value of the trade between China, the British Empire, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom is shown in Appendices X and XI. In 1920 the figures
were:-
Thels,
British Empire (including Hong Kong)
562,750,000
Hong Kong
295,770.000
United Kingdom
177.520,000
The trade with the United Kingdom being divided between-
Imports from United Kingdom Exports to United Kingdom
Tuels.
131,720,000 45,800,000
£
191,100,000
100,438,000 60,282,000
*
44,729,000 15,553,000
(N.B. Haikuan tael for 1920-68. 94d.; it now (October 1921)=about 48.) Appendix X shows the percentage of shares during recent years of the British Empire. Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and our chief competitors in the trade of China.
Appendices II and III give the Department of Overseas Trade list of 24 British general merchant firms in Hong Kong and 123 British firms in China, of which 68 are in Shanghai, 15 in Tientsin and 11 in Hankow. The great firms which are to be found throughout the treaty ports are Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co., Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, the Asiatic Petroleum Company, the British American Tobacco Company. Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Co., Messrs. Reiss and Co., Messrs. Dodwell and Co., Arnhold Brothers.
The most important British import is cotton goods. The official trade report for 1919 states on expert authority:--
The British piece-goods trade has definitely and completely re-established itself in China-probably more promptly and thoroughly than anybody in Lancashire or China ever hoped. Japanese and American competition need to be watched. but are not insurmountable difficulties. Neither of them can supplant us altogether, nor we them, because of the varied styles of cloth which
• This return is misleading as it includes branches of firms and agencies.
we all produce, and the possible development of China's riches will mean that there will be scope for all. Japanese competition is more to be feared than American, because their Government recognises that they must keep on the China market or cease to exist as a great commercial country."
In the second half of 1920. the piece-goods market was greatly disorganised by the slump.
Other important imports from the United Kingdom are iron and steel, and machinery and in all of these the United States of America is a most formidable competitor. The following have been the other principal imports from the United Kingdom cigarettes, woollen piece-goods, soap, haberdashery, stationery, scientific instruments. explosives. bicycles, motor-cars and cycles, books, paper, furniture, indiarubber goods, hand tools, shoes and boots, leather manufactures, dyes, plate glass and spirits. The principal exports to the United Kingdom were tea. furs, hair and feathers, beans and bean products, vegetable tallow and wax, silk, wool, jute, animal tallows, poultry. game and egg products.
The apparently commanding position of the British Empire in the China trade must be qualified by the consideration that nearly two-thirds of this trade is trade with Hong Kong. Much of the Hong Kong trade is transit trade merely (for instance, the large trade in rice from Indo-China into South China), and cannot be regarded in any way as British trade. It must be realised therefore that both in exports and imports China's principal customer is henceforth Japan; that the British Empire comes second, with the United States of America third. The alarm- ing German competition has for the time being, at any rate, been swept away. So has the Russian trade. The French trade is prosperous, but it does not compete with us.
XX. Newspapers,
The list in Appendix XII shows twenty British newspapers in China and Hong Kong, of which four are in Hong Kong, ten in Shanghai, five in Tientsin, and one in Hankow. XXI. Missions.
Apart from religious considerations, the value to the British Empire of the national influence and propaganda which British missionaries carry into the remotest corners of China should not be underestimated. The list given in Appendix XIII, taken from the Directory of Protestant Missions, 1919, shows the wide dispersion of British missionary work. According to this list, the total staffs in residence in China of purely British missionaries number 1,658; and the staff of the China Inland Mission which is an international organisation, numbers 680. Thirty different British missionary societies are comprised in this list.
But undoubtedly America holds the first place in missionary, as in educational work in China. According to a United States of America official publication, Protestant mission-workers in China number 5,388, of whom 2,309, or about 43 per cent., are American. Out of gold $7,500,000 spent yearly in mission work in ('hina, North America provides $3,750,000.
Catholic missionaries have claimed the right to lease and buy land, and build houses in any of the provinces" by virtue of a clause appearing in the Chinese text of the French Treaty of 1860. It was not until the American Commercial Treaty of 1903 was signed that Protestant missions were definitely given the right to rent and to lease in perpetuity buildings or lands in all parts of the empire." XXII Educational.
**
Closely connected with the missions is educational work. The following figures, though old, are not without interest :----
1876
1899
1906
1917
Year.
Total Number !
of Pupila in
Mission
American
British Continental Percentage. Percentage. Percentage.
Schools.
5,917
52
97
11
10,836
58
36
6
57,683
50
42
8
151,000
7
*38
According to "Chins Year Book."
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